Canucks Army Preseason GDT #3: Flames @ Canucks (Sans Markstrom)

The Canucks take on the Flames for the second consecutive night this evening. While the expected lineup will hardly resemble the one that took the ice in Calgary on Thursday, there’s one name in particular that won’t be involved in tonight’s festivities despite not having travelled with the team yesterday either.

Unsurprisingly, guys like Bonino, Kassian, Burrows, Shinkaruk, and Corrado get the night off after getting their turn yesterday.

But back to Markstrom, who’s NHL future now hangs in the balance for the next 24 hours. While the general reaction was one of surprise from people looking on from the outside, the timing of the move makes sense for the Canucks. It was just last weekend, after all, that Jim Benning attempted to throw other teams off the scent with a somewhat thinly veiled ploy to throw other teams by pretending as if burning an extra 23-man roster spot on a goalie that would never be used was an option for the team.

That was a short lived pipe dream. With Eddie Lack playing so well this preseason, and Ryan Miller making all of the money, you don’t need analytical analysis to realize that Markstrom wasn’t long for this roster. What’ll be interesting, though, is if another team out there will prove to believe he has a place on their’s.

Markstrom is set to make $1.2M against the cap this season (on a one-way deal), and at first glance there don’t appear to be very many teams that a) have that type of space on their books, b) don’t already have two goalies in place with one-way deals of their own.

The Jets, who have supposedly been poking around for the services of Lack, appear to be a potential fit because of how horrendous their incumbent is. But Michael Hutchinson is someone that people are high on, and he’d need to pass through waivers to get sent down to the AHL himself. A more realistic landing spot may be in New Jersey, where the Devils don’t currently have anyone secured as their backup. Oh, the irony of the man traded for Roberto Luongo being relegated to playing behind Cory Schneider.

Without many natural landing spots – not to mention the bloom being off the rose with Markstrom – it’ll be interesting to see whether anyone bites. If they don’t, Markstrom will be sent down to Utica to presumably split starts with Joacim Eriksson. Unfortunately, due to the ‘Wade Redden Rule’ the Canucks would still be on the hook for a $275k hit, bringing their dead cap space in net to $1.075M. Not optimal, but also not all that relevant at this very moment given that they’ve presumably got their team in tow already.

At the very least, this potentially opens the door for another young player to make the team; like perhaps either Hunter Shinkaruk or Nicklas Jensen, who have both had successful showings to-date.

Two biggest negatives: 1) How badly the Canucks have been outshot in every game and 2) Zack Kassian’s dark matter imitation and what that potentially means to the Canucks having or not having a second line.

Looks like management will play Bo continuously until they finally make up their minds about his future.
Horvat has nothing to learn in the OHL playing against younger players. If management doesn’t keep him then send him to Europe with a right of recall.
Who were the other players waived today?
It seems like Gillis managed to “trade” two world-class goalies for a total return of Bo and a contact-averse fourth line banger.
If Horvat goes and Matthias stays I would cancel my season’s tickets.

they are wrong, you can’t sneak good players though at this time, you can only send down career AHLers with no fear of them getting picked up. look at the other names being sent down today, Markstrom is the only name that sticks out from the bunch, anyone with shaky goaltending (winnipeg) will gladly pick up a flyer like Markstrom and if he doesn’t pan out in the next week of exhibition games, just waive him again.

With Winnipeg having two goalies who’d also have to clear waivers I don’t think they’re really looking for that avenue. Even if they did and then wanted to dump him on waivers later, they can’t do so in the immediate time after claiming him (I’d have to look in the CBA, but I think it’s something like 2 weeks to 1 month that they can’t put him on waivers again) so they’d have to keep three goalies or send one of Pavlec or Hutchinson down. And of course if they did put him back on waivers at any point this year, the Canucks would get first crack at him.

13.2 The “Playing Season Waiver Period” shall begin on the twelfth (12th) day prior to the start of the Regular Season and end on the day following the last day of a Club’s Playing Season. Subject to the provisions of this Article, the rights to the services of a Player may be Loaned to a club of another league, upon fulfillment of the following conditions, except when elsewhere expressly prohibited:
(a) Regular Waivers were requested and cleared during the Playing Season Waiver Period; and
(b) the Player has not played in ten (10) or more NHL Games cumulative since Regular Waivers on him were last cleared, and more than thirty (30) days cumulative on an NHL roster have not passed since Regular Waivers on him were last cleared.

I’m not a lawyer, nor a GM, but I’m pretty sure they couldn’t waive him for another 30 days & 10 NHL games, since we’re within the 12 days of the season starting. If they’d released him one day earlier, then your scenario would work.

It’s almost like the Canucks’ staff knew this & was waiting for the clock to tick over so they could send him down.

New Jersey was my pick (as well as the Islanders early in the summer, but then they signed Johnson) from the start as a likely team to claim Markstrom if he did indeed get to waivers. The Jets have some reason to think that could help as well, but then I was thinking Hutchinson wasn’t waiver eligible.

Markstrom has to be better than some team’s backup: for instance with the Devils, they signed Clemmensen to a one year, two way deal and presumably wouldn’t have any issue upgrading there. The other two options they have are Wedgwood and Kincaid, and while they like Kincaid both are able to be sent down without waivers and could develop for one more year.

As a Canucks fan who wants to keep him though, here’s hoping teams like New Jersey are happy with what they have or feel there’s too much risk with Markstrom (when all he needs is coaching, shh don’t tell them!).

It is perfect timing in that no team had seen their goalies “blow up” yet, so GMs will be hesitant to drop 1.2 mil on a guy that was a top prospect. Plenty of those around for sure.

If he sticks down in Itica, it gives the Canucks extra depth at goal. Having a 1 Miller 2. Lack and 3. Marks from is fine with me. If Markstrom gets claimed… Oops? Not really that big a deal, since Eriksson probably is as good right now.